“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Some days we are just so darn brilliant in our games. Why? Who knows? We change putters. We change coaches. We change golf partners. We eat our Wheaties or alter our warm-up or put on special lenses or wolf back vitamins or, more than likely, do something that creates the brilliance out of thin air. And hey, we smile and take credit for our brilliant game.

But the next round is vastly different. We struggle with three-footers. We question our routine. We change things up. We switch clubs. We take chances. We take unnecessary advice. We second guess. And as the game progresses, we self-talk and beat ourselves up. Our mind gets out of control and our “feel” game is diminished. And we blame everything from weather to slow pokes. Continue reading →

Athletes get tripped up in their games in ways that can be predicted and prevented in the first place. Bob Palmer gives you three simple approaches to prevent the preventable and tackle the unpredictable. So what can you do when your game falters? A lot if you are prepared and anticipate the types of problems that might occur.Continue reading →

Several years ago in my role as a part-time karate instructor, I got run down from too many competing interests for my time. My business required a great deal of travel, my daughters had very active lives and my karate classes had expanded to nine hours and three nights from just one, two-hour evening. But I carried on as usual, somewhat aware of the toll it was taking on me.

However, as I was an experienced instructor, I was convinced I could leave it all behind and shift to the Zone at class time and pull off what I thought were some pretty amazing classes. So why worry? Continue reading →

“If wanting to win is a fault, as some of my critics seem to insist, then I plead guilty. I like to win. I know no other way. It’s in my blood.”

– Bear Bryant, Football Coach

Just like Bear Bryant, winning is in my blood and in the blood of my karate students. I love to win; they love to win. There is no feeling quite like it. However, there are lots of blog posts and articles these days on the perils of winning and the damage it can do to the tender minds of our children. I’d like to shed some light on my process for winning and the impact it has had on my own students.

If wanting to compete and win is a fault, as is suggested by some, how did my karate students come to love it? And if winning only supports the best and most proficient athletes and denigrates the weak, how did all my students (including my special needs athletes) come to enjoy it and even rise to the level of black belt? Continue reading →

As the National Hockey League prepares for the 2014-15 season, teams are filling gaps in positions and skill sets, so that in six months (and 82 games) of player trades, injuries, fatigue, drama of contracts, personality clashes, media and fan pressure, etc., they will have the complete team that will finish at the top of the standings. But, what if the Montreal Canadiens, for example, who are unable to decide on a leader for the role of captain and are going with four alternates, could avoid these kinds of manpower issues, no matter what the makeup of their roster, with a simple system for brilliant leadership?

We hear of struggling teams such as the Edmonton Oilers looking to land the next Sidney Crosby in the draft, but rarely do we hear them looking to acquire the next brilliant Scotty Bowman. That is because leadership is often perceived as an inexact and uncontrollable science, similar to predicting the weather. Except at trade deadline. Then teams like the Boston Bruins look to trade up for that one player such as Jerome Iginla who’ll take a significant leadership role in the playoffs. This goal to find leaders should be the norm, especially when searching for coaches.

The potential benefit of brilliant coaching is reinforced by three undeniable truths:Continue reading →

The family unit, whatever its make-up, can be a powerful contributing force to a young athlete’s preparation and success in sport. With the right approach, training to get all members of the family on the same page and supportive of each other, will make or break the experience.

It is said that it takes a community to raise a child. It certainly is true that it takes a family to raise a child. And I’ll add a big addition to this. In youth sports, it takes a family to raise and inspire a young athlete. Trainers are working with many more family units these days, and a “family” can be any definition you want it to be from single mom or primary caregiver to influential grandparent. Generally, with modern technology, trainers can step right into living rooms and work with families via Skype, FaceTime or ooVoo, in a manner that is as good as visiting face to face. As a matter of fact, it is face to face!

Family units need to be powerful

Working with a family unit is very powerful as you get a combined impact of the parent supporting his or her teen athlete and the teen athlete supportive of the parent in return. To give you an idea of the benefits of this arrangement in terms of sharing the training load, staying on the same high performance “page” and creating an unbeatable group dynamic or synergy, the following is an amalgam of several families I’ve recently worked with. I’ll call them the Smith family, and they have a 16-year-old son, John, who plays hockey. Continue reading →